Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Burn or be burned

It's going to be a bad fire season because of the drought and the freezes. There's a lot of dead vegetation out there. The latest freeze zapped the Ceasarweed, which is rife in some of the fire lanes, and some of the other stuff. There's ankle-deep pine needles in the forest on the north side of the preserve next to the aging mobile homes and overgrown fire lane.

A lightning strike could be disastrous, despite its ecological benefits. People could lose everything they own, which doesn't appear to be much. That would be sad.

Prescribed burns are controversial at the moment and probably politically difficult, but the alternative is ugly. I hope my fears are overblown.